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Warmly Constantine Njeru

The going green movement seems to have caught up with marathons. Last weeks Tokyo marathon made effort to reduce the marathons impact on environment.

The ugly side of a marathons is the use of plastics that are littered everywhere. Although I have to say I find it fun to kick the empty water bottles that runners throw on the road.

The organisers of Tokyo marathon used the following ideas to make the marathon one of the most eco friendly events on the planet.

Use of Solar Energy

The PA system was powered using solar panels fitted on a truck. The 350 solar panels fitted on the truck can generate electricity to power two houses.

Use of Reusable plates.

At Nairobi marathon, runners are only served with free water but at Tokyo Marathon, free food is part of the deal! Thats sweet! Meals provided to participants were served on reusable plates, while sports drinks were served using paper cups.

Making the marathon green seems to have attracted green movement fanatics, like one spectator told the Japanese press “At other marathon events, paper cups and other kinds of garbage are often dropped on roads. I like this event because it’s ecologically conscious,” said a 70-year-old man from Yokohama

See the following Japanese website on how they are revolutionising how we run. DONT WORRY THE SITE IS IN ENGLISH.

I was looking at the results on last weekends Tokyo Marathon and one 4 hour runner said the greatest agony was not running in the cold weather but was the humiliation of being overtaken by Japenese pensioners!

“I thought I was doing quite well and then there’s some 70-year-old granny I’m just catching up to,” 33-year old bank employee, Jones said.

One runner who wasnt bothered by the pensioners was the winner, Switzerland’s Viktor Roethlin, who powered to victory in two hours, seven minutes and 23 seconds.

Japan has one of the highest life expectacies in the world, at 81 years of age. The number of people over 65 years of age is estimated at 25 million.

The promoters of Tokyo marathon dont just see them as part of 2 million spectators to cheer the marathon runners along Tokyo streets but potential marathon runners.

As our banker runner learnt, this old runners are no push overs. They will beat you in a young man’s game!

On Tuesday John Mccain continued to pull away from our marathon man, Mike Huckabee. Huckabee who has previously run New York marathon and Little Rock Marathon and now training for Bostone marathon, must surely be familiar with the agony of trying to catch up with a runner who is fast ahead of you.

At last year’s Nairobi marathon, there was this unorthodox runner ahead of me, everytime he got at a hilly section, he would run up in a zig zag manner. I tried to catch up with him to ask him why the zig zag but everytime I got up the hill he disappeared ahead. I never caught up with the runner and at the finish, its never easy to find one soul in a mass of 15,000 +. I still dont know whether running zig zag saves energy.

Deena Kastor Lesson on how to run from behind

If Huckabee needs a lesson on how to run from behind he needs to look at inspiring performance of American, Deena Kastor, the marathon bronze winner at 2004 Athen Olympics games.

I remember watching the event live on TV as the quartet of Japan’s Mizuki Noguchi, Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba and Ethiopia’s Elfenesh Atemu lead for most of the distance. Only a brave man would have bet against this three running away with the three medals.

But as the runners neared the finish it was obvious Ethiopia’s Atemu was falling a victim of the humidity that had earlier forced the race favourite Paula Radcliffe to retire.

After Atemu ran out of gas, Deena couldnt believe her luck as she zoomed past Atemu to snatch the bronze medal.

The moral of the story for Huckabee, Luck favours the prepared. Keep marching, you never know your rival might trip.

For a bio on Deena Kastor visit her official site www.deenakastor.com

The New York times have one of those David vs Goliath stories, this time its your corner running gear store vs the big chains.

How to Save Money at all cost

Speciality stores owners in America are really feeling butterflies in their bellies, like one worried owner told the paper “It’s a fact of life some people will do anything to save $3 so they’ll come to our store and get fitted and then go up the block and buy it there,” said Leanore Gallardo, whose flagship Metro Run & Walk in Falls Church, Va. — one of three she owns in the Washington area — is about to face a Road Runner Sports a mile away. “Only a fool would not be concerned,” she said.

Its seems runners will walk into a small store get get fitted without blinking an eye say thank you and walk out to get a burgain elsewhere. How unfair!

Read the New york times online to see why your corner running shop maybe no more.

Yesterday morning I went for my first morning run in two weeks. After suffering from an illnes called laziness for the last 2 weeks I finally found five cures for laziness. After trying the ideas, am fully cured!  

The 12 K run reminded me how much I love running. Running gives you the satisfaction of doing something challenging. When I tell my friends to try running they say they cant do it! Its good to know you are able to do something that many people consider impossible!

The period between January and February is the hot season here in Kenya. To avoid running under hot sun I run very early in the morning when temperatures are low.

I did not time my run because I woke up at 7.00 am which was 30 minutes late, in the rush to beat the morning sun I forgot my stop watch.

Perfect Running  swing

When I discovered that my wrist was naked I decided to focus on my leg swing. I have been trying a new running style where my ankle makes a full swing. A friend adviced me that one cause of ankle injury is running with a stiff foot. Instead of landing on the front part of the foot, I land on the heel then let my foot swing to the front part.  Your ankle should be in motion.

As much as I tried to stick to my new running style, I occasionally found myself back to my old style, I guese it is a case of Old habits die hard! It takes patience and perseverance to adapt to a new running style.

Go to my new blog to read the article on cure for lazines http://dailyrunningtips.com/marathon-running/a-cure-for-laziness/

a 1000 apologies for the inconvenience

Last week we heard in the news a bomb explosion in Damascus, Syria killed a secretive Hizbollah operator, Imad Mughniyeh

Mughniyeh is widely believed to be behind a wave of Western hostage-taking in Lebanon during the 1980s.

He had been in hiding for years and was high on US and Israeli wanted lists.

This is not a political blog but what stole my attention was comments on BBC from Hizbollah, “With all pride we declare a great jihadist leader of the Islamic resistance in Lebanon joining the martyrs… the brother commander hajj Imad Mughniyeh”.

“After a life full of jihad, sacrifices and accomplishments … he died a martyr at the hands of the Israeli Zionists,” it quoted a Hezbollah statement saying.

Its sad that a man who has caused so many deaths is celebrated as a hero. The young men and women of Palestine need a new generation of positive heros.

A New Palestine Hero

One uncelebrated hero from Palestine is 16 year old Gharid Ghrouf. She was the sole runner representing Palestine in last year’s Osaka, Japan World athletics championship.

It took her three days to get to Japan only to arrive in Japan and to discover she had been entered in the wrong race. A technical error by Palestinian Sports authority saw her entered in 800 metres instead of 100m.

She did not sulk or curse but graciously lined up against Maria Mutola in the heats. She had some jitters, “I was very afraid to do the 800m but I tried to do my best”

She did not qualify for the finals but she was positive about the future, “I want to study at college or university afterwards and be a sports teacher and coach,” she revealed. “I hope to study at the university in Tunisia or France.

It’s my prayer that young men and women in Palestine will embrace Gharid values, understanding, courage, ambition and some love.

Shocking News from UK is that Controversial sprinter Dwain Chambers has been included in Great Britain’s squad for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Valencia.

The 29-year-old – who was banned from athletics for two years after testing positive for the performance-enhancing drug THG – will compete in the 60m sprint.

I find it unacceptable to to give drug cheats a second chance in sports. This is not 30 years ago when a 14-year-old child behind the Iron Curtain is given something at breakfast and told that it was part and parcel of becoming an international athlete. Today athletes use drugs knowingly.

This was an athlete who flew to America, knowingly took a drug that was undetectable at the time, got caught, admitted he’d taken drugs, then went on to say that you can’t win anything without taking drugs. Chambers is a a cheat, who has admitted he’s a cheat.

Chambers shouldn’t be allowed to run. He cheated and got caught. He should have been kicked out forever.

By giving him a second chance we are setting a bad example to young athletes. The short ban and a chance of getting back to running have lowered the risk of using illegal performance enhancing drugs. To deter atheletes from using performance enhancing drugs we need a life ban from sports.

As for now allowing Dwain Chambers to get back to running is sending the message “Crime does pay” They should have let him join disgraced Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson “Running against horses“

Mike Huckabee has previously said  running has taught him the importance of planning, preparation and persistence.

Persistence is one virtue Mike has taken whole heartedly in the marathon race to be the Republican Presidential Nominee. I was watching Mike’s interview by Larry King on CNN and the marathon man vowed he wont quit the race inspite trailing John Mccain.

This was bad news to Mccain and the rest of Reblicans who hoped that Mike would be reasonable, see he has no chance and quit. But runners are never reasonable!

Being reasonable means assessing your chances of winning verses not winning. If our decision to run a marathon was based only on whether we can win or not non of us would ever run a marathon.

Every runner has his own motives for running, it could be to set a personal best, to cut weight or to raise money for charity. Some times our friends dont understand why we run, a good illustration of how the public views running is a scene from running movie, spirit of the marathon, As the six running heroes in the movie start running Chicago marathon someone in the crowd is shamelessly waving a sign that reads, “You’re all crazy.” of course we dont give a shit!